18 Prof. Bailey on the Crystals found in Plants. 



organic structure of the wood. Remembering the assertion of 

 Rev. J. B. Reade, that plants when burned, left a skeleton of sa- 

 line matter, retaining the forms of the cells, and other organs, I 

 wished to verify the statement in this case by examining the 

 ashes, which seemed to be in a very favorable state for observation. 

 I accordingly melted some thickened Canada balsam, upon a 

 piece of glass, and touched it very gently to the ashes ; a portion 

 adhered, and by blowing off what had not touched the balsam, 

 I obtained, as it were, a longitudinal section of the ashes, in 

 which the particles retained the relative position in which they 

 were left by the combustion of the wood. As the balsam hard- 

 ened in cooling, the section was left in a state of great transpa- 

 rency, and firmly set, so that it could be kept for years. On sub- 

 mitting the ashes thus prepared to microscopic examination, my 

 attention was immediately arrested by long rows of brownish, 

 polygonal bodies. 



Similar observations were then made on the ashes of the oak. 

 Polygonal bodies were found in great abundance, but smaller 

 than in the hickory, and presenting considerable diversity of form. 

 The ashes of many other trees presented similar polygonal bod- 

 ies, and they were, indeed, found to constitute a large proportion 

 of the insoluble matter in the ashes of most dicotyledonous trees, 

 whether indigenous or exotic. 



It became then, a matter of considerable interest to determine 

 the nature of these bodies, and to ascertain whether they were 

 really, as they appeared to be, the remains of crystals, or merely 

 saline matter, to which a polygonal form had been given by de- 

 position in the polyhedral cells of the wood. 



The same plant which first drew my attention to the subject, 

 solved the enigma. On looking at the bark of any species of 

 hickory* when exposed to the direct rays of the sun, numerous 

 crystalline particles were distinctly seen, and I found no difficulty 

 in examining them, in situ, in thin layers of the liber or in sec- 

 tions of the bark or wood. But they were more satisfactorily 

 seen when completely isolated, which was easily effected by 

 scraping a little of the bark above a plate of glass, and then blow- 

 ing off the woody particles, after the crystals had been made to 

 adhere by slightly moistening them with the breath. The mi- 



* Carya alba, C. porcina, &c. 



